John Hockenberry Climate Of Doubt Analysis

Improved Essays
In the PBS FRONTLINE news report, Climate of Doubt, John Hockenberry explores how climate skeptics argue against the global scientific consensus, thus contributing to the increase in climate change skepticism in the last six years. These skeptics come together, construct an argument on one point of view, and undermine the public’s beliefs of climate change. The \ strategy, the basic argument, they use to address climate change is simply denying the fact that human activity causes global warming. More so, this movement gained strength during the time the economy failed. The Hot Air action consisted of a hot air balloon with a banner that said, “Cap-and-trade means higher taxes, lost jobs, less freedom.” This proves that the public turned away from the government and its climate change policies when skeptics gave them reasons to believe it was untrue by saying the efforts to address the threat of climate change contributed to the recession. …show more content…
Certainly, this does lead the public to question their personal opinion on climate change. However, having no reliable reason behind the act, climate change skeptics view denying the consensus as their top priority. This shows the thoughts of climate change skeptics: they do not have to understand the science behind climate because they know how to manipulate the beliefs of the public. Therefore, I don’t think there is a scientific basis for arguments presented by climate change skeptics because the climate denial movement is aware that they do not need to win the battle of climate change through scientific argument, just as long as they convince the public there are misconceptions concerning the scientific theories regarding climate

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The public must be enlightened, but the public must not be belittled. That is the major difference between Anna Lappe's essay The Climate Crisis at the End of Our Fork and Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan's As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial. Although these two pieces seem similar on the surface, as they both address society's ignorance towards climate change, only one truly educates the public on the issue and sparks initiative for change, while the other criticizes and mocks its audience for trying to cope with a situation that is far more complex than the average person comprehends. As the World Burns presents itself as a self-aware satire, in hopes of causing society to recognize how the "easy solutions"…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    While there is no single cause for the fall of the climate change proposal, there were several reasonable components. Perhaps it was the combination of a lack of leadership from the president, a weak economy, an integrated republic opposition which created a lack of Bipartisan support, and the Senate filibuster taking charge. What also didn’t help the matter was the fact that Democrats were not merely prepared to make another tenacious vote, paired with the Democrats from coal states’ reluctance to drive business interest by increasing the price for polluting. In an issue like this, skepticism was inevitable and the impact the skeptics of global warming had on this issue was harsh; this group was able to weaken the amount of public support that the bill had been gaining and draw the attention away from the matter as a way to decrease the level of urgency that was effectively needed for the bill to pass.…

    • 1244 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    In the Living on Earth radio segment the host interviews Chris Mooney, the author of the book Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future. The host and Mooney discuses a 2009 Pew Research center poll that found that most Americans don’t believe humans have induced climate change. Mooney argues in the interview — and in his book— that there is a growing gap between scientists and the public. He argues that sciences has been politicalized in recent year, and he mentions another Pew Poll that found that Republicans— even well educated Republicans are less likely to admit Climate Change is human induced. Additionally, Democrats in the past have also been critical of certain medical vaccinations, thus he finds that both…

    • 1111 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Climate Hoax” was created by Pat Bagley from the Salt Lake Tribune in attempt to criticize the general attitude in regards to the crisis of global warming. Unlike, the first image, no one event sparked the illustrator’s criticism, rather the public as a whole did. As seen in these two cartoons, in addition to the public inadequately legitimizing issues, policymakers often wait to take action until the public takes action. However, the public frequently fails to do so due to their blatant disregard for some issues. So, in order for the Flint water crisis and global warming to be addressed properly, the public has to actively speak up for the lack of attention these issue are getting.…

    • 1599 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Climate Change: Fault in Humanity Bill Mckibben’s essay makes several claims relating to the ongoing climate changes happening. Mckibben emphasizes that society is not doing enough to help stunt the negative change in climate. He targets the educated social class who have an ability to make a change and those who call out others for hypocrisy. Mckibben assembles several claims that hold truth in them using anecdotal and common sense evidences, but lacks to use sufficient numbers, statistics, and documented evidences.…

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Norgaard, Kari. 2014. “Normalizing the Unthinkable: Climate Denial and Everyday Life” Pp.…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The government is using global warming to scare the people into the giving them the power they want. Williams says this is the point of practical politics. This means that the government creates imaginary problems to keep the populace alarmed and scared, causing them to turn to the government for help. Another point the writer makes is on suppression of free speech that many of the global warming supporters are proposing. One has to wonder if these people actually believe the things they say about persecuting those who deny global…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fox News establishes their credibility by referencing to experts’ opinions, like climate scientists. For example, Doug McKelway, a Fox correspondent on The Special Report, uses the “NASA scientist turned climate activist James Hanson,” to show he “also acknowledges the lull” in the planet’s temperature rising (“Climate Change Challenged”). By using this prominent and credible climatologist, Fox News gains the public’s trust and faith in their climate change opinions. James Hanson proves that Global Warming was exaggerated, once he identifies that temperatures have flat lined and have only increased a few tenths of a degree in the past decade. Dr. Robert Carter, a marine geologist, agrees with Hanson and believes that this lull in the past decade proves that climate change is natural and not caused by humans (“House Environmental Committee”).…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In addition, a sub claim that is presented in the article is that there is a lack of agreement between people’s opinion regarding the contribution to climate change to that of scientists. With the public support, a senator claims that climate change is only a “hoax” used to scare “America” (9). Scientists with knowledge in the field, on the other hand, acknowledge that climate change is due to the activities performed by humans. Therefore, the public is constantly avoiding acknowledging climate change and it’s…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The article “Capitalism vs. the Climate” was written by Naomi Klein about climate change and its solutions in relation to the economy as well as the political reactions to such solutions. Her article mainly revolves around the premise that climate change deniers are right about one thing, that in order to fix climate change, drastic changes in the modern economic models are needed. To this end, she makes a good, albeit flawed argument, as although she does provide a plethora of sources for her arguments at times, at others she stops short of providing much evidence for her claims, all the meanwhile going from a neutral tone of language to at times quite obviously biased uses of it. She starts off the article from the perspective of a fish who’s just swam to unfriendly waters…

    • 1746 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Even with this happening, many still refuse to accept climate change. Both sides offer facts and attempt to persuade others, but all dispute aside, climate change is a pressing problem in the world. Climate change can be easily seen if one simply looks at the environmental changes happening around them. There are multiple things happening in the world that have not in…

    • 1204 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout “A Moral Atmosphere”, McKibben illustrates how Americans choose to blame industries on global warming instead of acting. “But if 10 percent of people, once, they’ve changed the light bulbs, work all-out to change the system? That’s enough. That’s more than enough. It would be enough to match the power of the fossil fuel industry, enough to convince our legislators to put a price on carbon” (McKibben 670).…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The correct use of the term, especially by an influential figure aids in the acceptance of climate change’s presence. Research in the article "The Scientific Consensus On Climate Change As A Gateway Belief: Experimental Evidence" notes that “at least 97% of climate scientists have concluded that human-caused climate change is happening” (van der Linden et al. 1). The scientific evidence supporting climate change is paramount, yet numerous people--conservative Republicans--continue to believe that the severity of the situation does not exist. Climate change has gained controversy within the political sphere due its negative portrayal of fossil fuels an energy source which Americans have relied on for decades. This financially and politically motivated reliance has left little to no room for alternative energy sources: ethanol, geothermal, solar, and…

    • 1270 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In fact there are boatloads of articles regarding climate change, with various opinions and statements. Unfortunately this can lead to the confusion of the public and render their understanding incomplete. With the variety of media such as the internet and the different information that contradicts each other the public can be sent out on their own to create new assertions. Segal explains that, “Each side of the climate debate accuses the other of exaggeration and suffers from its own….Each narrative doesn’t just oppose the next but is deeply incompatible with it” (122).…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    (Gain attention) President Barack Obama once said “There’s one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other, and that is the urgent threat of a changing climate.” (Reveal Topic) This statement by President Obama on climate change conveys how important the fight against climate change is. (Establish Credibility) I became interested in this topic after getting into a disagreement regarding climate change with my grandfather and how he doesn’t “buy into that liberal bullshit,” so I set out on a mission to prove him wrong by conducting research with the goal of fully understanding the climate change debate. (Preview the Body)…

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays